The present disclosure relates to an ink container and an inkjet image forming apparatus equipped with the ink container.
The inkjet image forming apparatus forms an image on a surface of a sheet by discharging an ink from a recording head to the sheet. The ink discharged from the recording head to the sheet is supplied from an ink container to the recording head.
The ink containers are configured to fit into various image forming apparatuses, respectively. For example, there is an ink container holding a large quantity of the ink. The ink container holding the large quantity of the ink may be configured to house a pouch pack filled with the ink and to discharge the ink from the pouch pack. As one example, as shown in FIGS. 16 and 17, an ink container 101 includes a pouch pack 102 filled with an ink, and a container case 103 containing the pouch pack 102. The pouch pack 102 is configured to be formed into a bag shape with a gusset by a flexible film material, thereby expanding when the ink is filled, and contracting when the ink is used and reduced.
For example, there is an image forming apparatus to use an ink cartridge (an ink container) housing a liquid storing case (a pouch pack). The liquid storing case is configured to have creases formed at the both sides in parallel with an insertion direction and to collapse along the creases as an internal ink flows out.
As mentioned above, the pouch pack with the crease at the both sides deforms so as to expand but to shorten in forward and backward directions when the ink is filled, while to contract but to lengthen when the ink is reduced. However, in views of shock resistance in transportation and volume efficiency, an ink container 101, such as the above-mentioned ink cartridge, is formed so that the length of the container case 103 in the forward and backward directions matches to the length of the pouch pack 102 in an expanded state (see FIG. 16). Accordingly, even if the pouch pack were 102 deformed in accordance with reduction in the ink, because the end of the pouch pack 102 collides with an inner wall of the container case 103, the lengthening of the pouch pack 102 is prevented (see FIG. 17). Thus, if the pouch pack 102 were not lengthened sufficiently, because an expanded portion of the pouch pack 102 is stayed, the ink is not completely discharged and remained.
Since the ink remained in the pouch pack in this way cannot be discharged by the ink container configured as mentioned above, the pouch pack is determined as a used one before the ink is used up, and then, the ink container or the pouch pack must be replaced with new one. However, if the ink in the pouch pack cannot be used up, replacement frequency becomes higher and a workload of a user increases. In addition, the replacement of the pouch pack having the remained ink causes user's dissatisfaction.
Further, since the expanded portion of the pouch pack in an ink filled state struts, the gusset is not buckled when the ink is reduced, and the ink is not discharged, but remained. Especially, the pouch pack is susceptible to the strutting in a left state, such as during transportation or preservation. Moreover, the ink tends to be left at the side distant from a part fixing the pouch pack in the ink container. Such difficulty in folding the gusset cannot be avoided even when a space used for lengthening and deforming the pouch pack is arranged inside the ink container.